


Of cold cities and warm hands

by korereapers



Series: FE3H fic series [4]
Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Azure Moon - Freeform, FE3H Siblings Week, Gen, Post-Timeskip | War Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-01
Updated: 2020-05-01
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:28:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23949178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/korereapers/pseuds/korereapers
Summary: The heat in Embarr burns everything to the ground, but that room is surely as cold as Fhirdiad itself.She is not sure of why she knows. She just does.
Relationships: Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd & Edelgard von Hresvelg
Series: FE3H fic series [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1773310
Comments: 15
Kudos: 39





	Of cold cities and warm hands

Dimitri’s blue eye pierces through her, warm and desperate. There is something familiar about it, something she cannot place. His slight pout, that she saw so many times during their academy year. The awkward way he moves when he is not fighting.

Embarr has always felt lonely, even when it’s always full of people. The throne room is too big, the walls too thick, the ceiling too high. The heat in Embarr burns everything to the ground, but that room is surely as cold as Fhirdiad itself.

She is not sure of why she knows. She just does.

“El…” Dimitri insists, and the word is way too nostalgic, too emotionally charged. He is reaching out, offering her his hand.

There is blood on her forehead, her hair stuck to her skin. _It’s over_ , she thinks. _Everything I fought for is over_. She could just take Dimitri’s hand, but what would happen after that? Is there a future for her, in which her ideals are fulfilled without more bloodshed?

The professor is looking at them, their sword pointing at Edelgard, their posture relaxed but still cautious. They don’t trust her, not that she blames them. She wishes, for a moment, that they had chosen differently. That it had been her, and not Dimitri.

Against Byleth, Edelgard feels weak. Their scrutiny, their disapproval. It feels cold, even colder than before.

“Hu… Hubert?” she manages to ask, her voice trembling. Dimitri smiles, but the professor doesn’t.

“He is under custody. Alive.”

Alive. Hubert is alive. The only one who didn’t leave after she declared war to everyone and everything. She sighs in relief. This demonstration of mercy could mean the end of the Kingdom, of their whole army, of their lives, and yet…

Yet Dimitri’s hand is still waiting for hers. Patiently, like he is expecting her to come back from somewhere sooner or later. Edelgard doesn’t know if she has been lost for too long for her to come back to wherever that place is.

A leap of faith. That’s all it takes. To completely trust someone who may understand, like she desperately wants to.

She takes his hand, the concealed dagger long forgotten inside of her cloak. Dimitri looks like he is about to cry, lips trembling and eyes wet, and for some reason she feels like crying, too.

“El… thank you, El.” he sighs, his voice hoarse, tired. So, so tired. “My dear, dear sister…”

And then, everything clicks. To say it all comes back to her would be a lie, but she does remember something. Dimitri’s warm hands as she taught them how to dance, leading him, reprimanding him because of his clumsiness. Caring about him so much it hurt. It still hurts.

“Dima…” she says, everything around her a little blurry. “Dima… I…”

Dimitri sobs, unceremoniously, like a child. She smiles slightly, closing her eyes as he embraces her with the care of someone who could break others without really trying. His heart beats fast, but it’s soothing, somehow.

In the middle of the cold throne room, she thinks, Dimitri’s hands are still warm. And all she had to do was to reach out in return.

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, I know this is against Edelgard's whole character. But I would really have liked for her to just take his hand. Sigh
> 
> ah yeah im playforfroot on twitter, eskuhotzak on tumblr


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